Homeless camp rousted outside homeless fundraiser

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Just as the annual fundraiser for the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness was hitting full stride Thursday night with people cheering the organization for its advocacy for the down and out, city police officers decided to weigh in with some thoughts of their own — as in rousting the camp right outside the doorway of the coalition’s bash at Eighth and Brannan streets.

James Wright is homeless and was told by police to move his camp from Eighth and Brannan streets Tuesday night. (Photo: Kevin Fagan/The Chronicle)

A couple of squad cars rolled up to the longtime camp of about a dozen people with tents under Interstate 80 around 8 p.m. As increasingly irritated coalition members and supporters watched and grumbled, police officers told the campers to move on or face citations for illegally staying on the sidewalk.

“This is completely unnecessary,” Paul Boden, the coalition’s former leader, said as he watched the police issue their orders and called out several condemning comments. “This camp has been here for years. Why do this now?”

Inside, revelers ate cake and marked the 25th anniversary of the Street Sheet, which the coalition launched as the first homeless-run newspaper of its kind in the United States.

“We’ve been hosting this event here for more than 10 years and this is the anniversary of the Street Sheet,” said Boden, who now works with the Western Regional Advocacy Project. “It’s ironic that they should bust up this camp right now.

“It’s screwing with homeless people’s lives to make a statement to the coalition, that’s how I see it. If not, it’s a hell of a coincidence.”

An officer at the scene declined to comment, and police media representatives did not immediately return requests for comment.

“I’ve been camping here for years, and they move us a lot but it’s usually in the morning,” James Wright said as he prepared to move his belongings. “I don’t know why they have to do this now when all those people are having their event right inside.”